Funny few days. Haven’t been feeling particularly well, but not sure why. Today my stomach feels odd, but I hope to be well enough to go to Caddington this afternoon.
On Wednesday, after Dot had been to Park Farm and I had been for a short walk, we went to the Queen’s Head in Hethersett for lunch, and I had a sort of brunch. Slow service, but the food was good. Dot dropped me off in St Augustine’s afterwards, and I paid the church cheques in at the TSB, then walked home. Felt completely flaked out when I arrived. Weather was quite mild – maybe I was too warm!
Yesterday we had two unexpected visitors (in the sense that we only knew about them shortly before they arrived). First came the Hendersons, who are on the verge of buying a house on Ipswich Road: Dot felt the call to make some rock cakes, which were very nice. Then my great-nephew Elliott made an appearance, accompanied by his parents. They are staying with Phil and Joy.
Elliott is a bit of a star, with a lovely smile, and I took some quite reasonable photos, together with some very bad ones.
Earlier in the day I wrote a new poem and sent it and a couple of others off to competitions. I don’t know why I keep doing this: they hardly ever do anything, and it means I can’t publish them until the competition is over. Still, you have to keep trying.
We keep watching the winter Olympics, but I can’t take many of the events seriously. In my view anything that gets style marks is not a sport.
Not an Australian poet, but Andrew on the beach at Winterton
A quiet few days in terms of getting out of the house, but of course the Olympics were coming to a climax and Dot was also – well – reaching the apogee of her house-cleaning programme preparatory to welcoming the Murrays when we return from Devon. The house now looks terrific and I am beginning to relax a bit. The weather has been good.
Have been out a bit, though. Yesterday, after our regular haircut, I rendezvoused with Lisa D’Onofrio and had a late lunchlet at Waterstone’s. As literature development officer back in 2003, she opened the door for me to take part in a poetry project which eventually turned into InPrint, and so changed my life, transforming me from a closet poet into a real one. She is a really good poet in her own right, but she is now living in Australia, her home country. We had a good 90 minutes of reminiscence and catching-up, following which I bought a new pair of trainers.
On Sunday Dot and I went to see Jessie after visiting the cemetery at North Walsham. It was actually a bit warm to sit in her summerhouse, so we moved indoors for scones and strawberries. She seems very well, apart from family worrries.
Last night I had my second game of chess this calendar year – a bizarre affair in the first round of the club knockout tournament. I got a clear advantage fairly early on and should have won, but I was too timid, blundered and then he was clearly winning. But he dropped a piece, and I got the advantage again, but couldn’t make anything of an extra pawn in a queen ending. So we have to play again in September. Not a classic. However, I picked up my prize for best game played at the club last season, which turned out to be a£25 John Lewis voucher – more than 100% larger than I thought it would be.
The Olympics has now ended, but it lingers on in the newspapers and on TV. After a brilliant opening ceremony, the closing ceremony was very poor musically (two songs from George Michael and Russell Brand singing a Beatles song – is that the best we can do?) though it did end with The Who, bringing a bit of belated class to the proceedings. Someone said that before the Olympics, everyone thought we were poor at sport but brilliant at music: now…
And so the excitement continues. On Tuesday Dot and I picked up Oliver and Amy from Caddington and brought them back to Norwich for a few days, with fine weather forecast. Wednesday dawned fine and very warm, and so we headed to Winterton with an amazing amount of equipment and camped on a surprisingly crowded beach. Locals with dog were heard to ask “where all these people were in the winter” and add: “We want our beach back.” I didn’t point out that we came to Winterton at all times of the year; anyway they weren’t talking to me. There was a certain amount of paddling done, some frisbee throwing, some picnicking and some dashing about in the dunes. All in pretty warm weather.
On Thursday Amy and Dot did some shopping in the morning, and we had lunch at Prezzos. In the afternoon we drove to Mundesley. When we arrived (4pm) it was a bit chilly, with one of those misty things off the sea, but the longer we stayed, the brighter and warmer it became. Amy did some swimming in the sea, and even Oliver and Dot went a fair way in. Astonishingly, I paddled a bit too. By the time we left, just after 7pm, the beach was near-deserted and looked stunning in the evening sunshine. An idyllic couple of hours.
Oliver had heard someone mention fish and chips, so decided we should get some, and we drove to Bacton, where the chip shop was still open after its stated closing time, so we bought some fish and chips and ate it at the table outside. Embarrassingly late home.
Friday was warm again, and we took the City Sightseeing bus around the city, which was a bit expensive but good fun. David had phoned saying he was coming to stay the night, so we decided to go to Winterton again and have some games in the dunes, followed by tea and cakes in the excellent cafe. I impressed Oliver by my speed off the mark and my death-defying leap to reach the hide-and-seek base. Ended up aching all over, which was not so impressive. Got home shortly before David arrived, and we had an evening meal of chicken, some of which I had purchased earlier, at the same time as filling the car up with petrol (well, not exactly the same time, obviously).
Friday was also our 44th wedding anniversary and the opening of the London Olympics. We had prosecco to celebrate (provided by Dot) and then we all stayed up to watch the Olympics opening ceremony, which I thought celebrated our anniversary very well. We didn’t watch it all because it went on very late, but we recorded it, and Dot and I watched the ending today. I have to say I was greatly impressed.
Colin came on Saturday and finished off some stuff in the garden. He was going to do a temporary repair to the living room ceiling, but the company who are going to fix it wanted to see it as it was; so instead he’s left us a board to screw in after they come tomorrow. Meanwhile it rained heavily today, and water started flowing through one of the holes again. I rang up the roofer, who has promised to come tomorrow morning.
I preached at St Luke’s this morning and then went down to St Augustine’s to sort out various money matters and to get shown how our new heating system works. Stayed on to rehearse some songs for Lowestoft next week.
At the end of the day on Thursday Dot and I went up to the Bubble Room for desserts, and we then all watched 3.10 to Yuma, which is as good as I remembered. Makes you think a lot about why people behave as they do, and what really corrupts.
Yesterday Roger was feeling really bad, and today he’s worse, and staying in bed. Barb not too good either, but she and Dot went shopping yesterday as the weather got warmer. Dot bought a really nice skirt and some tops. Meanwhile I was doing a lot of walking. Started at the dock while there was still a chill in the air and saw three or four dolphins about 100 yards away. Watched closely by pelican, which seemed to think I had food. Then Dot and Barb dropped me off at Tween Waters on their way to the shops, and I walked back along the beach, taking in the chapel and cemetery (not morbid: both are picturesque). After a quick lunch of biscuits, cheese and blueberries, I embarked on a hike up to Redfish Pass, the most northerly point of Captiva. Outward part by beach, then back through the South Seas resort that annoyingly owns all the tip of the island. The last stretch is a quite wild bit of road between the bay and the Gulf, which I had forgotten was so long: mildly concerned that a large alligator might leap out of a roadside pond, or a deadly snake lurk in the grass. But no: in fact snakes and alligators rarely make an appearance, though I’m told there are lots of them. Passed hardly any pedestrians in final mile and a half. Whole walk (about six miles) took a couple of hours. In the evening we went to Doc Ford’s Sanibel Grille and Bar, which is a restaurant owned by R W White, the top local thriller writer whose main character is (of course) Doc Ford. The books are good, and so was the food. I had a delicious large rib-eye steak with mashed potato-and-parmesan and other goodies. Plus a couple of Tropical Breezes, which are rum-based cocktails. Amazing. Back at the house we watched the Olympics – mainly curling, which the Canadian women should have won, but didn’t.
Now it’s pouring with rain, and it will probably continue most of the day. Seems quiet without Roger, and there is only a very remote chance of Dot making it downstairs before noon, though to be fair she made me a cup of tea earlier. Barb is tackling bookfuls of bridge problems, Dot is reading a brilliant book called Blink, and I am roughly halfway through the compelling Black Widow, by the aforementioned RWW. If I am not mistaken, we have reached the halfway point of our holiday.
